Jon-Paul Ales-Barnicoat
CHRO
Alivecor
Episode 19
Beyond HR Ego: How Authentic Communication Empowers Your People & Mission
Current chapter: This episode features Previ, the only free tool that helps HR teams boost internal communication
Built By PeopleDecember 18, 2025 · 10:16
Thesis
“Effective HR leadership pivots from individual ego to serving the organization's people and mission, fostering genuine communication and engagement, especially during periods of rapid growth and cultural diversity.”
Show notes
Summary
In this episode of the Built by People podcast, host Dallin Demke speaks with John Paul Ales-Barnicoat about his unexpected journey into HR, the current priorities of his organization, and the importance of genuine communication in fostering employee engagement. They discuss the challenges of scaling a startup, the role of technology in enhancing communication, and the significance of understanding employees as individuals. John shares his aspirations for the future of the organization and offers valuable advice on leadership and personal development.
Takeaways
- John Paul Ales-Barnicoat's career path was not traditional, starting as a recruiter.
- The organization is focused on scaling its commercial business globally.
- Effective communication is crucial in a dispersed workforce.
- A leadership series was introduced to bridge communication gaps.
- Genuine communication fosters a stronger organizational culture.
- Understanding employees as individuals enhances engagement.
- Slack is a key tool for community building within the company.
- AI tools are being leveraged to improve communication authenticity.
- Future aspirations include ensuring every employee understands their role in the company's growth.
- Leadership is about serving the people and mission, not personal ego.
What you'll take away
- 1Prioritize genuine, authentic communication from executive leadership to bridge gaps and humanize leadership within dispersed teams.
- 2Shift perspective from 'employees' to 'people with lives' to inform more empathetic and effective communication strategies.
- 3Leverage informal communication channels like Slack for community building beyond business-related topics.
- 4Utilize AI tools to enhance the authenticity, thoroughness, and frequency of internal communications.
- 5Embrace a servant leadership mindset, recognizing that senior roles are about enabling others and fulfilling the organizational mission, not personal ego.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Pushes back on the term 'transparent communication' as it can be ambiguous, advocating instead for 'genuine communication' that reflects real thoughts and struggles.
In Jon-Paul's words
“The more senior you become in the organization, the less about you it becomes. And the more you become a servant to the people, the organization, the mission.”
This quote encapsulates a core philosophy of servant leadership crucial for senior HR roles.
“The communication gap was significant, and the organization had been through some speed bumps. And so, I introduced a in a LiveCORE leadership series, which is really a fireside chat.”
This highlights a specific initiative taken to address a critical communication problem in a growing company.
“When you stop thinking about people in their employee persona, and you start thinking about people as people that actually have lives... When you start thinking about people from that perspective, you then start to understand what real communication needs to look like.”
This emphasizes a human-centric approach to communication, moving beyond traditional corporate thinking.
“The thing that the emerging tool for us that's really helping us from an HR perspective and helping us to really humanize some of our communication is where we've really gone all in on Gemini. We're using Google's AI tool to help us to craft more authentic messages, to help us to make sure that we're being thorough and complete in our communication.”
This demonstrates a practical, current application of AI in HR for improving communication quality and authenticity.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Communication gap between executive team and employees in a dispersed, hybrid company (Alivecor, a 15-year-old startup).
- •Difficulty in maintaining genuine, authentic communication across multiple cultures within a growing global workforce.
- •Challenges in humanizing executive leadership and fostering a sense of community in a rapidly scaling organization.
- •Need for tools to craft more authentic, thorough, and complete internal messages to boost engagement.
In this episode
This episode features Previ, the only free tool that helps HR teams boost internal communication
Built by People
John Paul Ailes Barnacote started his career as a recruiter
Built by People: John Paul Ailes Barnacote
Tell me a little bit about your top priorities right now. My top priority is to scale our commercial business globally
Top Three Priorities
Alivecore recently rolled out a leadership series aimed at improving employee communications
Employee Communication at Alivecore
Communication is becoming harder and harder across every organization
Better communication in the workplace
We probably communicate more through Slack than any other tool
What's the Best Communication Tool for Your Organization?
John Paul: I hope people are inspired about the future of the organization
What's Changed at Work in the Last 12 Months?
John Paul shares some parting advice with the Built by People community
John Paul on Leaving the Company
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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